It looks like January 2014 silver American Eagle bullion coin sales will fall short of the record January 2013 sales results. A year ago 7,498,000 silver Eagle coins were snapped up by eager buyers during the first month of the new year. It was a buying frenzy.

For gold bullion coins, buyers purchased 33,000 gold Buffalo one-ounce coins through Jan. 14, 2014. In January of 2013, buyers took 72,500 for the entire month.

It still is possible that January 2014 sales for Buffalo gold coins will exceed last year’s opening monthly total, but that seems less likely for the one-ounce gold American Eagle where as of Jan. 14, 43,500 have been sold, compared to last year’s January total of 124,500.

Sales of other sizes of American gold Eagles were relatively much stronger. Some 10,000 half-ounce pieces have been sold in January 2014 so far compared to 17,000 in the same month last year.

The quarter-ounce Eagle has already exceeded the January 2013 sales number. The figure of 28,000 quarter-ounce coins sold as of Jan. 14 is 4,000 more than what was sold in all of January 2013.

The tenth-ounce size has registered sales of 115,000 pieces so far this year, already 5,000 more than what was sold in January 2013.